Budding fans of the Vita’s upcoming real-time fairy dating game Ciel nosurge have been aghast to learn that the game is episodic and will take over a year to finish and cost 2-3 times the price of a normal title.

According to calculations made by a concerned “game shop employee,” the game may be the most expensive yet for the Vita:

It’s actually quite a bit different to how most games are sold.

The game has 13 “episodes” and a further 3 extra episodes, only the first of which is included with the game itself.

Each episode is going to be released monthly, and they will cost ¥500 each.

So to finish it will cost ¥5040 + (15 x ¥500) = ¥13,040 [about $170]

I’m a bit concerned about how many people will be able to keep playing a game like this for over a year without losing interest along the way…

so how much do Americans pay for Call of Duty these days? $60, every year with little to no changes?
Plus like 4-6 mappacks following the release, every month another $15?

Sorry, but I think in a country that is stupid enough to pay for a FPS with such a sales model, those "oh no, I get actual content every month for 5 bucks"-complaints are kinda dumb.

Even McDonalds and Burger King over here are raising the prices for single burgers to over 5€, and remember that the Euro still eats your USD even in yet another crisis. So yeah, buy a burger less a month and satisfy your other needs instead.

Its 5 bucks a months for a product you enjoy, if you're able to afford Consoles and Games in the first place, you can deal with that additional cost.

And that compares to this case how? 170 bucks over 15 month vs 130 over what? 4 to 5 years by this rate? with 30+hours singleplayer + potentially endlessly more in multiplayer/ custom maps?
Im no blizz fanboy ( not anymore atleast ) and i dont like where activision is taking them but your comparison is bullshit

actually it will cost about $180 for all 3 b/c blizzard said each one is a stand-alone game and they will charge as such. And since the first was $60 its safe to say that the other 2 will be $60 each as well

So uhm, where do I spend my money. Even the first expansion doesn't even have have an official release date yet. Not mention the part (the game itself) has quite a few hours of gameplay, more than most games.

Sadly yeah, this is all true. Me personally would never pony up that much money for a FPS... then again My game right now is Uncharted 3, paying the 100 bucks for the limited release that came in that big gorgeous box. I recently also payed I think it was 30 bucks (forgot the cost already, lol XD) of the Fortune Hunters Club to get the first 7 DLC's for one price (A savings of over 40-45%! XD) which includes the first 4 map packs and character skins throughout said map packs, of which over 20 selectable characters have been made available already. DO I use ANY of those downloadable characters, nope, but they're there as part of the package anyway O_o...

so that's already 130+tax bucks in the span of 2-3 months since game's release.

Thing is, people with no interest from the get go will claim rip off and "yup, this is the era of the DLC nickle and dime all right..."

But people who love the games, trust the company making said games, etc. will pony up the money without a second thought, especially if it's something that will interest them.

Is it expensive when you do all the math up front? oh hell yes it is, but that's the reason why American invented the "On sale for 19.99!" slogan.

20 bucks "sounds" expensive, but 19.99 is right within your budget if the commercial announces it as "Pay under 20 dollars!"

Hell they ain't lying, they're a business, and they need to do what it takes to stay afloat in such dangerous times right now.

Companies are being absorbed, studios are going belly up. The way I see it, if you love a game and like what the company putting out said games year after year sell, then buy into them, pay full price for their games, support the DLC releases, and accept the fact that this is the future of gaming as we know it and hopefully we don't get yet again screwed over like SEGA did with Valkyria Chrinicles 3 in which people DID buy into their sales pitch: "If part 2 sells, we'll go back to part 3 for the ps3!" Which not only did it sell well, but part 3 was still on the PSP and did NOT get brought over to america :(

Hopefully this is but one of the few screw overs we'll experience as gamers but something tells me it isn't...

Oh man... Siren: New Translation will forever be scorned for starting this trend.

In Siren's defense, though it started the 'episodic' style of purchase, total price for all episodes accumulated to 60 bucks which is totally fair. This game however... yeah, I'd sooner take a risk with not one, but 3 prostitutes in Phuket who I can freely and tangibly touch, kiss, fuck and sodomize for the rest of the night.

This is it, ladies and gentlemen; game industry has started applying ripoff practices and we're powerless before something like ACTA takes away our freedom. Live the oppression, or die fighting.

What are you talking about? The Japanese gaming industry has been raping the wallets of otaku for years, this is seriously nothing new. Though I can assure you if this is released outside of Japan it will come with a far more sane pricing scheme.

That's true.. With games and Bluray/dvd editions of anime (2 episodes each disc) I don´t see any difference, exept that You could save money if don´t like the first episode and drop the game.. is fair I think...

In Japan People pay for a "Limited" edition that come with a nendorid and such things, pay this price or more... For the initial game You will pay less than a Half of what cost the total package.. if the initial episode have enough content to go trough it for a month then new episodes monthy for 500Y aren´t bad..

I agree with you sir, but what I would like to see is what the 2d fans will say about a real working Chii, she will be 3D after all (and more expensive than a ferrari I am a mechatronics engineer I know) so I think they will look at the wallet cry a little and proclaim that 3D loses to mechanical 3D that loses to 2D and keep using their hands...

I agree with you sir, but what I would like to see is what the 2d fans will say about a real working Chii, she will be 3D after all (and more expensive than a ferrari I am a mechatronics engineer I know) so I think they will look at the wallet cry a little and proclaim that 3D<mechanical 3D<2D and keep using their hands...

That's like asking why people buy a new Final Fantasy or any sequel ever.

This game however is not a sequel. It's a single game split into parts, all of which needs to be paid, and end up accumulating into a price point that is basically more than 3 times standard price even for typical AAA games with much higher production values sold at launch.

What's wrong with this if each "episode" is decent length and has a self contained story? You look at the Legend of Heroes games and there are three "chapters" to buy, but each "chapter" is big enough to standalone.

PS3 is a home console. There isn't much incentive to hack it. Besides, its competition the 360 is already pirateable and most multiplatform games can be played there instead with superior quality(Bayonetta, RE5, Red Dead Redemption).

The Vita however is a portable. It may not be a smartphone, but not hacking it pretty much equals not hacking iPhone. It won't stay secure for long.

So technically, the game is broken into 15 pieces and each piece would cost, according to my calculations via calculator since by math is bad, $11.34? No, unacceptable. That' no effing different from the Dot Hack Scenario how the whole series was broken down into parts and each part cost money as oppose to having the game in full and paying it by usual retail price. Plus, I'll be damned if the game itself was all digital media instead of game cartridge, or card, since that's how the Vita rolls. Plus, who in shit's name would pay $170 for just one game!? It's absurd, highway robbery I say!

...How dare you compare dothack to this cheap game. dothack atleast was an RPG that you could do quests, train, lvl weapons, enter tournaments. So much more than i expect this "dating" game to be. The original dothack might not have been all that interesting, but dothack//G.U. was very entertainment.

on a more technical sense. they would have been in multiple disks anyway sense one disk can only hold so much and back then, the more disks you get the higher the cost. anything with 3+ disks back then would have cost a lot more than you think it would.

even now, microsoft makes you pay more if you cant fit it all on one disc, in the range of 10 million per extra disc.

that said the dot hack games were 20-30 hour games. but sadly i burnt our at around the 3rd game so i never finished it... i forgot the story, so if i want to play it, i have to go back throgh 40 hours of shit combat...